The Sue Alexander Grant is Open for Submissions!

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call for submission, contest, Nicholas Ponticello, Nick Ponticello, SAG award, submissions, Sue Alexander Grant, Working Writer's Retreat

by Brenda Scott Royce 

The 2021 Sue Alexander Grant contest opens today, offering one SCBWI-L.A. writer a guaranteed spot and free tuition to the Working Writers Retreat (to be held virtually this year on October 9). Winning a golden ticket to this always popular event is not the only reason to enter. Since COVID-19 sidelined last year’s event, 2020 winner Nicholas Ponticello will be among the attendees at the 2021 virtual retreat. But winning the prestigious prize has already impacted his career:

#KTChat with Janie Emaus: Perseverance, Potato Latkes and #PitMad—After Mere Decades, I Was an Overnight Success

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#KTChat, Janie Emaus, Latkes for Santa Claus, perseverance, PitMad, submissions, Success Story

by Janie Emaus

A plaque that sits above Janie’s desk for inspiration.

Editor’s Note: Author Janie Emaus will be available to chat with you on Twitter this Friday (October 2) from 12 pm to 1 pm (Pacific Time). Keep on reading for her story of perseverance, #PitMad and success, and get your questions ready for the live Twitter chat!

PERSEVERANCE

I believe it’s the most important factor in my long writing career. I kept the valuable parts of each rejection (of which there were hundreds), tossed away the rest and put my butt back in the chair.  

Last November my determination paid off.

Agent Laurel Symonds on the Creativity, Business, and Work-Life Balance of Kid Lit

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agent, business, Dogs, Doug Cenko, Laurel Symonds, productivity, Shelly Vaughan James, submissions

Agent Laurel Symonds began her publishing career in the editorial department of HarperCollins Children’s Books/Katherine Tegen Books in New York City and joined the Bent Agency in 2018. She’s also had positions in the marketing department at a small publishing house, in a library, and as a bookseller at one of the nation’s best independent bookstores. She’s looking for authors and illustrators from across the picture book-YA spectrum, especially underrepresented stories and voices. And! …She’s here to share some of all this kid lit wisdom she’s gathered before she sits on faculty for this year’s Working Writers Retreat.

SARAH PARKER-LEE: Your decades’ worth of experience with marketing, editing, bookselling, and publishing gives you a lot of insight into both the creative and business sides of kid lit. We can’t wait to learn from you at the retreat! What is one thing from each side you think authors and illustrators should know but often don’t?

#KT250 4th Quarter 2018: 5 Tips To Get Your Work Contest-Ready

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contest winners, contests, editing, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, submissions, writing tips

#KT250 is a Kite Tales quarterly community contest, but unfortunately this quarter we did not have enough entries to complete the contest. So instead, we’re offering you some tips as you prepare your work for any kind of contest submission and re-posting all our winning entries from this year! We’re so grateful for all who participated and made our first contest year so special. We can’t wait to see what you do next year!

And if you have any news to share about your entries, we’d love to hear it in the comments or via our “Great News” feature!

To find out how YOU can enter, check out contest info here. Entries are now being accepted for next quarter! (Please re-submit if you submitted for 4^thquarter 2018 and would like to be considered for the coming quarter.)

5 TIPS TO GET YOUR WORK CONTEST-READY:

#KTWriteOn with Agent Clelia Gore: Unsung Animal Heroes

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Bistra Masseva, Brian Russo, Cheryl Lawton Malone, Clelia Gore, Jackie French, Jessica Kensky, Jessica Olien, Jessica Sima, Leah Gilbert, Patrick Downes, picture books, submissions

As you settle into fall, celebrate the new season with a new manuscript. Clelia Gore, agent with Martin Literary Management and former Writers & Illustrators Day faculty, offers a challenge to the animal lover (and researcher) in you. 

Ask an Editor: Should My Picture Book Have Page Breaks?

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editing, pages, pagination, picture book, picture books, submissions

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog.

Dear Editor – I’m ready to submit my picture book to agents but there are no page breaks in my manuscript. Is that a problem?

—Unbroken, Los Angeles

#KTWriteOn with Editor Melissa Manlove: Non-Fiction Submissions

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Chronicle Books, Katherine Roy, Melissa Manlove, nonfiction, prompt, Roaring Brook / David Macaulay Studio, submissions, writing exercise

Just in time to help power your new year’s writing resolution, we’re introducing the Kite Tales Writing Prompt: #KTWriteOn. Each quarter, we’ll feature a writing challenge crafted by a kid-lit publishing professional. To kick things off, here’s a writing prompt created by Chronicle Books Senior Editor Melissa Manlove. As a bonus, Melissa is inviting submissions related to this exercise. Read on for details.

By Melissa Manlove

This writing prompt is for storytellers. Even those of you not interested in nonfiction—keep reading! We need you!¹

Ask an Editor: Submissions to Agents

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agent, agents, pages, submissions

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog.

Dear Editor – How many pages will I submit to an agent?

—Lim, Los Angeles